europa wrote: Who wear's a helmet that's colour co-ordinated with their bike?

Me! It's red , not pink ps. I've had one son hit by a car - no injury to him, but his helmet-encased head hit and smashed it's windscreen and another son crash into a concrete post - no injury to his helmet-encased head, but his helment was trashed. One of my fellow F-troopers bit the dust in a crit race - her helmet-encased head suffered no injury, but her helmet was cracked right through. I accept that if an accident is bad enough, nothing much is going to save you, but a properly adjusted, well fitted helmet will protect your head in many situations.
Besides, magpies bounce off them!

nimm wrote:so what should I be doing to ensure my helmet fits correctly?

If it doesn't rock around nor able to be flipped rearwards, then you have a close enough fit.

We all have seen rider wearing their helmets way high up above their forehead, that's just not smart. You need to keep the front of the helmet low to fully cover your forehead where a lot of impact happens. And it's also a point of contact where the helmet may be rolled rearwards leaving your forehead exposed.

If in doubt, ask at your LBS, helmet manufacturer or a simple Google search would come up with lots of definitive info.

OK, I got a helmet today guys (and girls). So you can change that one NO vote to YES.

What is that figure on replacing your helmet, every 2 or every 5 years?

I really open a can of worms on this one. I can see where tuco is coming from and kind of agree with the rationale.

There are alot of variables and its dangerous to generalise. For instance, the high speed and horizontal riding position of road bikes lends themselves to landing closer to the head area in the event of coming off the bike. I had plenty of stacks as a kid riding a bmx but I was seated upright and probably not going of 20km/hr most of the time. No head injuries that I can remember.

Morals of the stories;

-Prevention is better than cure
-Better safe than sorry

In the future helmets will be more compact air-bag like systems that have greater protection for the grey matter and not just the outside.

[edit]

(10 years off)

P.S. Nice photo mike, is that you in your younger days?

Last edited by gururug on Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

gururug wrote:OK, I got a helmet today guys (and girls). So you can change that one NO vote to YES.

What is that figure on replacing your helmet, every 2 or every 5 years?

Congratulations! You may never come to use it under adverse situations, but that's the nature of preventative equipments.

The figure of 3 years for helmet replacement is something I read on the net, and it came out of an interview with an engineer/executive of helmet maker Giro. But that figure took into consideration of a fair share of sun/UV exposure which has been demonstrated to weaken the material over time. Other than that verbal recommendation, I have not read any other specific recommendations on this issue.

BTW, salt accumulation also cause damage to your helmet material. It is recommended that you wash it regularly with mild soapy water. Taking it in the shower for a wash is a well adopted ritual by many cyclists around the world.

sogood wrote:........salt accumulation also cause damage to your helmet material. It is recommended that you wash it regularly with mild soapy water. Taking it in the shower for a wash is a well adopted ritual by many cyclists around the world.

The shower gotta beat a sponge I s'pose, but it might damage the avian assault defence system

gururug wrote:OK, I got a helmet today guys (and girls). So you can change that one NO vote to YES.

europa wrote: Who wear's a helmet that's colour co-ordinated with their bike?

Me! It's red , not pink

As I am now the owner of a red bike my RED hlemet should co-ordinate nicely!

LuckyPierre wrote:ps. I've had one son hit by a car - no injury to him, but his helmet-encased head hit and smashed it's windscreen and another son crash into a concrete post - no injury to his helmet-encased head, but his helment was trashed. One of my fellow F-troopers bit the dust in a crit race - her helmet-encased head suffered no injury, but her helmet was cracked right through. I accept that if an accident is bad enough, nothing much is going to save you, but a properly adjusted, well fitted helmet will protect your head in many situations.Besides, magpies bounce off them!

I have had numerous bingles over the years some small some bigger, but the one time I know for sure that a helmet saved me from much more serious injury was enough to make me a confirmed helmet wearer.

I was up out of the saddle climbing a short incline (the ramp going up to the Tonkin Higway bridge over the Swan river for those in Perth) when a rear spoke broke and snagged my rear derailleur dragging the derailleur into the wheel (at least I think that is what happened.). The rear wheel stopped turning and the bike rotated forward over the front wheel throwing me through the air - bike still attached thanks to the clipless pedels! I landed head first on my top of my head, putting a lovely dent in my helmet but fortunately not my head!

Looks like most of us has a tale to tell of how a helmet helped with low to med speed falls. It should be noted that these incidents don't get included in official statistics.

For me, it was almost 15 years ago on my hard front and back MTB. As I was riding around the Iron Cove Bay Run, going down this little hill into King's Park on an unpaved bush path (if you even call it that), the front wheel hit this tree trunk going across the path and came to a stand still. I flew over the bar with the rest of the bike, possibly landed head first. Didn't black out but sure saw those circling stars just like in those Warner Bros cartoons. Sat on the ground for a good 5 mins before I was able to pick myself up. I guess this is not much compared with other stories, but without the helmet which now sported an imprint of the ground, I am sure I would have seen red and a more serious concussion. I still have that helmet and didn't know at that time it's a single use item.

One of the guys I worked with did triathlons and other fun events. He was part of a team event, I'm pretty sure it was mountain biking. Anyway - one of his team members had a massive crash at speed and went into the ground head first. Helmet shattered, and pretty much his whole scalp was peeled back off the top of his head. Three weeks later he was back on his bike competing...

Anyway - on the subject of helmets, the cheap ones have a plastic cover which is fitted after the polystyrene is molded, but the more expensive ones (like mine, which was still under $100) have the polystyrene molded into the plastic cover during assembly - this makes them less likely to break up on impact, which is fairly important. A light ABS shell over the top would be even better, but they don't seem to make them like that anymore.

I started to look for what's available in terms of fibreglass/abs shell helmets and came across this :

Helmets have saved my life more times than I can count!

I've been through four major bicycle-car crashes as the rider - in one, the bike and car were both write-offs, but I managed to walk away ... holding six separate pieces of severely-flattened fibreglass and styrofoam.

I've had several minor and three major mountain bike episodes, ranging from an endo that cumulated in a fall off a twelve foot high cliff into a dry stream bed to a direct smash into a tree branch (while night riding) that was located just perfectly to crack the helmet in half top-to-bottom.

Yes I have got one. And i allways wear it, tho I am surprised at the number of people I see riding on the trails carrying their helmets on their handlebars. I'm just waiting till I see one with his head all split open so I can say;" You did'nt want to do that", or something equally fitting. Mind you realistically i cannot complain. I mean if one had'nt had the rubber helmet on then one would'nt be PosPete. So maybe I better just shut the Fup. ( Nice pic btw Mike, your private collection??? )

Oh on a slightly unrelated thread changing topic, Last holiday monday I did 95K, which is not so bad considering it was all on cyclePath, with Knobbly tyres. Tho I have to take it easy as the Doc seems to think my liver is swollen, and my blood sugar is way too high. Decrepid.

Having been deeply involved when the Australian Road Rules were entacted in SA, I can tell you that helmets are compulsory for bike riders (as you all know) but also for any person using a 'small wheeled vehicle'. This includes skates, skateboard, scooters (kids stand up on type) etc. How many kids do you see not wearing helmets while using them. My brother in law never bothered to get his son to use a helmet on his bike or scooter in his backyard, until a mutual friend's 10 year old son ended up drooling in a wheelchair for the rest of his life due to a slow speed skate board accident in his driveway. Needless to say, my nephew wears a helmet all the time now.

I guess my point here is, as adults, we can see a need for the use of helmets. If kids aren't taught the need for them early in life, it's easy to see why they are reluctant to use them later in life. How often do you see people (adults and kids) riding with the helmet on but undone. Or carrying it, but not wearing it. Think about how you would feel if it happened to you. How you would feel if you had to look after someone for the rest of their life,OR have to be looked after by your loved ones.

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